DeWITT — Business conditions cooled at Oberdorfer Aluminum Foundry, LLC until the company decided it had to cease its flow of molten metal forever. The DeWitt aluminum-casting manufacturer will close its plant at 6259 Thompson Road, it said in a Feb. 7 filing with the state Department of Labor. Oberdorfer set its closing for May […]
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DeWITT — Business conditions cooled at Oberdorfer Aluminum Foundry, LLC until the company decided it had to cease its flow of molten metal forever.
The DeWitt aluminum-casting manufacturer will close its plant at 6259 Thompson Road, it said in a Feb. 7 filing with the state Department of Labor. Oberdorfer set its closing for May 3 — a closing that will leave 86 employees without jobs.
It will also end production at a foundry dating back to 1875. Oberdorfer began as a bronze foundry before starting aluminum-casting production early in the 20th century, according to its website. Today it uses no-bake, dry-sand, semi-permanent mold, and permanent mold casting.
Oberdorfer makes products for the aviation, aerospace, aluminum pump, high-performance engine, recreational, and refrigeration industries. And it performs military manufacturing.
That range of industries served wasn’t enough to keep the manufacturer afloat. Company CFO Evan Beach released a statement about the pending closure.
“This has been an extremely difficult decision, but the economic conditions of the company have left us with no other choice but to cease operations and close the business,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, business volume combined with increasing costs leave us unable to sustain the business.”
Beach referred all other requests for comment to the company’s attorney, Robert Bourke. Bourke is based in Simsbury, Conn.
“This is symptomatic of the region and the industry and the times, unfortunately,” Bourke says. “All of your costs go up, and competition is brutal, and it’s an old facility.”
That facility is made up of a series of buildings totaling almost 230,000 square feet, according to records from the Onondaga County Office of Real Property Tax Services. The oldest and largest building was constructed in 1920, with subsequent structures going up in 1940 and 1960, the records show.
Oberdorfer owns the property but has not decided its fate once the plant closes, Bourke says. Its 2012 market value was assessed at $2.07 million, according to the county’s tax records.
Rising costs the company faced include “a little of everything,” Bourke adds. They ranged from raw material costs to labor and health care. But Bourke did not blame the union representing plant workers, the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), for the closure.
“The union has been very good in working with us to try to deal with labor issues,” Bourke says. “We’ve talked with the state and they’ve tried to work with us. It’s more a function of the other uncontrolled costs.”
Employees at the foundry are members of Local 1826. The closure will affect 77 UAW members who average 22 years on the job, according to a statement released by the UAW.
“It is a shame that the company is closing,” Scott Adams, UAW regional director, said in the statement. “Our members and generations of Central New Yorkers have put their hearts and souls into making a quality product for the Oberdorfer foundry since they began in 1875. The [UAW] is extremely disappointed with this news.”
The release also detailed agreements Local 1826 members made to try to keep the plant open. They surrendered a defined pension plan and took a 65-percent decrease in their defined-contribution pension plan, it said. They also ratified a 2-year deal in December overhauling their health-care program in an attempt to hold back cost increases. And wages for Oberdorfer union employees have been frozen for six years, the UAW said.
Although 86 total positions will be eliminated with the company shutdown, not all of those employees are currently on the job. Oberdorfer’s attorney, Bourke, says about 50 are actively working — the remaining employees were laid off and waiting to be called back to the factory floor.
The foundry’s employee count has hovered around 75 for the past several years, according to Bourke. In 2011, a layoff cut the number of union members working there to 32, the UAW said.
“That number has been up and down, down and back up again,” Bourke says. “Years and years ago, they were over 200 back in their heyday. But it’s been a steady decline, which is not unusual unfortunately in that industry.”
Company representatives will be negotiating with the UAW regarding severance packages, Bourke adds. They have yet to hold meetings or work out any details, though.
The DeWitt foundry is a subsidiary of Advanced Metals Group, LLC. That group operates three other foundries: Ross Aluminum Castings, LLC, an aluminum foundry in Sidney, Ohio; US Aluminum Castings, LLC, an aluminum foundry in Entiat, Wash.; and Mabry Iron Castings, LLC, an iron foundry in Beaumont, Texas.
None of the other three Advanced Metals Group companies are closing, Bourke indicates. Advanced Metals Group did not respond to requests for comment by The Central New York Business Journal press deadline.
The UAW pointed out that Oberdorfer Pumps of 5900 Firestone Drive in DeWitt is a separate company from the foundry and is not a part of Advanced Metals Group.
Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com
